Harvey Henry Dooge was born on March 2, 1929 in Hebron, Wisconsin.  He moved to Helenville at the age of 10 and was in 8th grade at Helenville Elementary when World War II began.  He was at home when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  "We heard it over the radio that Sunday, sometime after noon, our time.  There was no television then.  I told my children and grandchildren that the World Trade Center news gave me the same sick feeling that I had on that Sunday in 1941."

Mr. Dooge still has his ration books from when he was 14 years old.  He was 5'7" at the time and weighed 165 lbs.  The rations that they gave for gas were rather low so you had to carpool if you did not have enough.  Harvey went to high school in Whitewater because his brother went to college there.  His brother graduated from college in 1945.  Harvey's mother feared that his brother would be drafted.  "Some student or teacher was always enlisting or being drafted.  One woman English teacher left to teach radio at Truax Field in Madison."

He lived on a farm where there were 25 cows that they milked by hand.  They also had some chickens and ducks.  The farm was about 80 acres; 30 acres were pasture and 50 acres were tillable. They were not able get new machinery for the farm.  The military needed everything.

Mr. Dooge remembers German Prisoners of War helping out with the pea pack near Helenville.  The POWs would gather the peas and put them through a vining machine that would remove the peas from their pods.  The leftover vines would then be thrown on the ground. 

There was a group called the Junior Red Cross that made cards for servicemen.  They also sent cookies to Truax Field in Madison for the servicemen.

"Steel was for ships, planes, ammunition, trucks, jeeps, mortars, and whatever.  All new motorcycles and cars went to the Armed Forces except for police and fire departments.  Many women took over in the factories as the men went into service."

During World War II, there was no television.  They listened to shows on the radio.  Harvey remembers seeing a movie about the Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa.  Five brothers were all lost at sea when their ship sank during hostile action in the Pacific.  He also remembers the movie, "Tarzan."  Movies would be on shown on Sunday afternoons at an outdoor theater in Jefferson.  They also showed news reels about the war in the movie theater.

The name of Mr. Dooge’s ship was the USS ABNAKI (ATF-96).  The ship, a towing ship,  was 203 ft. long and 93 ft. wide.  It could get pretty close to shore because of how small it was.  Its depth was no deeper 16 ft. below water.  The ship could hold up to 20,000 gallons of water and 110,000  gallons of diesel oil.  Mr. Dooge's name was found on a ship's roster on the Internet.  (look for Dooge, Harvey 52 - 54).  Mr. Dooge is a lifetime member of the USS ABNAKI ATF-96 Association.

USS ABNAKI (ATF - 96)
15 NOVEMBER 1943 - 30 SEPTEMBER 1978

This ship has served in World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam conflict.  She operated in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II.  Several tows were completed by her in the Atlantic.  She also towed the captured German submarine U-505 during World War II.  This is the German submarine that is now in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industries.   Dooge's position on this ship in 1953 was a 3rd class machinery repairman .  Later, the USS ABNAKI was sold to Mexico for the Mexican Navy.  It now has a different number.

Harvey married the former Jean E. Burkert on October 7, 1950.  His first daughter, Vicki, was born while he was in Alaska.  His daughter was four months old when he first saw her in January of 1954.  At right is a picture of Mr. Dooge's sleeve from his uniform.  The rest of it was made into a rug by his wife.  It has an American eagle and a micrometer.  A micrometer is a precise measuring instrument.  Harvey and Jean raised four children, two girls and two boys.